Saturday Night Open Thread

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 08:23:02 PM EST
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Economic malfeasance, militia groups and Iceland's volcanic ash seem to be dominating the news. President Obama and several other world leaders canceled plans to attend the funeral of Polish president Leah Kacyznski.

Amanda Knox's lawyers have filed a 220 page brief in her appeal. The case continues to generate attention. DNA evidence seems to be a big issue. The former Blackwater president and four other senior officials have been indicted on weapons and false statement charges.

A federal judge in New York has granted requests by the media to conduct an open sentencing hearing for Cameron Douglas in his heroin case Monday.

Prosecutors in the Roman Polanski case, are still at it. Now they are arguing the victim's wishes can't affect the proceedings.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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Saturday Night Open Thread | 31 comments (31 topical)

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WJ Clinton on This Week (5.00 / 1) (#15)
by ruffian on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 10:24:01 AM EST

Good interview -catch it if you can.

On his mistake in allowing derivative trading he says the argument made to him was that only the most sophisticated investors would buy these complicated products and they would be very rare. He admits itvwas his mistake. Refreshing to me, anyway.

Just as refreshing (5.00 / 1) (#17)
by CoralGables on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 11:16:09 AM EST

was him speaking at the University of Miami this weekend about things he would do differently during his presidency. When he was asked about how he handled the Elian Gonzalez issue...

"...there are several things that I would do differently. Three or four I've talked about and wrote about in great detail in my book the ones that I felt differently about. But this isn't one of them."

: Excellent (5.00 / 1) (#19)
by ruffian on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 11:53:02 AM EST

Collateral Integrity (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by Edger on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 10:54:13 AM EST

Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" incident have written an open-letter of "Reconciliation and Responsibility" to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which U.S. forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees.
Ethan McCord and Josh Stieber deployed to Baghdad with Bravo Company 2-16 in 2007. Ethan was on the ground at the scene of the shooting, and is seen on the video rushing one of the injured children to a U.S. Vehicle; "When I saw those kids, all I could picture was my kids back home". Ethan applied for mental health support following this incident and was denied by his commanding officer.
Josh Stieber was not at the scene of the shooting but says similar incidents happened throughout his 14-month tour; "The acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war." Josh states that these casualties demonstrate the impact of U.S. military policy on both the civilians and the soldiers on the ground.
Ethan and Josh claim that though their unit was following the Rules of Engagement that day, they are taking responsibility for their role in the incident and initiating a dialogue around it; "Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny."
The letter, which they hope to get to the family who lost their father and whose children were injured in the attack, states that they "are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us."

--Collateral Integrity: A Letter To The Iraqi People

Amazing (5.00 / 1) (#24)
by squeaky on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 12:12:18 PM EST

Yes it is amazing how emotionally compelling a leak can be...


I've added a video interview (none / 0) (#26)
by Edger on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 02:52:38 PM EST

with Josh Stieber, as the first comment to that post. It's a good interview, and I think he and Ethan deserve to be commended for doing this.


Good For Him (5.00 / 1) (#27)
by squeaky on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 04:08:14 PM EST

But I cannot understand why anyone would go over there to kill in the first place.. maybe it is just me.

Also I wonder how many are sending those kind of apologies when not in the limelight of a wikileak.


Probably very few.... (none / 0) (#28)
by Edger on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 04:17:33 PM EST

But there are quite a few Iraq vets who have been writing and blogging in very vocal opposition to it.

Michael Gass is one (who used to write diaries here at Talkleft, btw), and lateley Truthout has started to publish his writing, for example: US Foreign Policy: Sixty Years of Disaster

"Decline and Fall', a former interoggator in Iraq, whom I have great respect for is another: Islam Isn't The Problem

...if we are going to claim to be serious about fighting terrorism, we need to focus our efforts on the factors that actually motivate people to become terrorists, not the factors we continue to insist motivate them. Killing or incarcerating a terrorist or insurgent may take one of them out of circulation, but if you create two new ones for every one you destroy, you are going backward, not forward.
I saw this dynamic when I was an interrogator in Iraq. Coalition forces would arrest an insurgent, humiliate him in front of his family, keep him in prison for months, and then release him without charges. In the meantime he learned to hate us (even if he hadn't before) and, more importantly, his family learned to hate us. While he was learning to hate us, he was in a population that was uniquely qualified to fan the flames of his hatred and teach him how he might better act on it. Meanwhile his family and close friends were now easy targets for recruitment. In getting rid of one "terrorist," we created several. Is it any wonder that the estimated number of insurgents in Iraq jumped from 5,000 (total) in 2003 to 70,000 (Sunni) in 2007, while the prison population skyrocketed from 10,000 to 60,000? (See pp. 25-26 of this Brookings Institute report for details.)
When will we realize that our presence in the Middle East and our support of tyrants such as Mubarek and the Saudi Royal Family are not only not helping ease the troubles in the region, they are the primary cause for those troubles? Middle Easterners are not stupid. They can see that America has a long history of supporting brutal dictators (remember the Shah?) and they have learned from that experience that we are not to be trusted. They see us stomping around the world with our big stick and turn to whatever means of resistance they can find to resist what they see as the assault on their culture by the biggest bully on earth. The fact that militant Islam is their only major option should not cause us to confuse their motives.

: Fodder (5.00 / 1) (#30)
by squeaky on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 04:51:24 PM EST

When will we realize that our presence in the Middle East and our support of tyrants such as Mubarek and the Saudi Royal Family are not only not helping ease the troubles in the region, they are the primary cause for those troubles?
Never, because the little people do not matter.
What were they thinking before joining up? That is a good message to ponder, and once answered perhaps a way for those who now get it to "educate" potential new fodder before they learn the hard way..

I'm just happy they (none / 0) (#29)
by Edger on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 04:50:37 PM EST

finally saw it clearly enough to apologize for it. Sometimes it takes longer for some than for others, I guess...


: Yeah (5.00 / 1) (#31)
by squeaky on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 04:53:58 PM EST

At least for their own sake. The truth and reconciliation aspect is far too limited for it to have any larger effect, and besides the WOT is still on, even if it is under another name..

Well I just watched Mitch McConnell (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by Militarytracy on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 11:42:24 AM EST

never actually answer Candy Crowley's question about what he talked about with the Wall Street titans. At the same time, the Obama administration isn't really interested in making banking boring again either. Nobody represents the people again. Hate to break it to all those "leaders" out there declaring that the bad times are on the way out too....but they are not. Now on CNN the issue is when is consumer confidence going to turn around because that is when the economy WILL truly get better. Think about it you jacka$$e$. Where is unemployment? We are about to hit a brand new round of home foreclosures, everybody is broke and broken except for the elites who are all insisting that the bad is mostly over. It is disgusting watching this bullcrap storm. We are all frogs sitting on the stove and as the heat gradually rises having a difficult time discerning that we are on our way to being boiled alive.

And still to come... (5.00 / 1) (#20)
by Edger on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 11:53:43 AM EST

2011 $300 Billion Commercial Real Estate Time Bomb that the February Congressional Oversight Panel reported on:

Between 2010 and 2014, about $1.4 Trillion in commercial real estate loans will reach the end of their terms. Nearly half are at present -- underwater-- that is, the borrower owes more that the underlying property is worth. Commercial property values have fallen more than 40 percent since the beginning of 2007.

Do business bankruptcy judges (5.00 / 1) (#22)
by ruffian on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 11:58:59 AM EST

get to 'cram down' real estate principal amounts? If not, watch how fast we get that legislation now that it will be businesses underwater and not just homeowners.


: It'll give Tim Geithner (5.00 / 1) (#23)
by Edger on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 12:07:09 PM EST

something to do at your expense, maybe...

But but but (5.00 / 2) (#21)
by ruffian on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 11:55:53 AM EST

The DOW hit 11000 and lots of the lucky employed like myself bought ipads! Happy days are here again MT! Get with the program! SNARK


haven't followed the Amanda Knox case closely (none / 0) (#1)
by desmoinesdem on Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 08:50:49 PM EST

but from what I have read I cannot believe she was convicted. Is the standard in Italy less strict than "beyond a reasonable doubt"?

: From what I've read (none / 0) (#11)
by jbindc on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 08:09:37 AM EST

Italy's burden of proof is on par, and even higher on some cases, than the US

Ubaldo Jimenez (none / 0) (#2)
by rdandrea on Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 08:57:08 PM EST

throws the first no-hitter in Rockies history.

What else is more important?

: Padres up 5 - 0 over the D-backs (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by otherlisa on Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 10:16:27 PM EST

And it's D. Eckstein Bobblehead night!

: A distant second (none / 0) (#4)
by CoralGables on Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 09:35:13 PM EST

The Cardinals backup third baseman gives up a run in the top of the 19th as the Mets take a 1-0 lead.

: Beautiful game (none / 0) (#5)
by jimakaPPJ on Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 09:56:42 PM EST

and what a catch in the 7th....

In San Diego Co. (none / 0) (#3)
by oculus on Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 09:27:50 PM EST

Defendant Gardner pleads guilty to 2 counts of first degree murder, thus avoiding possible death penalty.

THE (NOT SO) EARLY DAZE, part 11 (none / 0) (#6)
by Dadler on Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 10:15:50 PM EST

The memoir blog crashed into present reality. A mess indeed. But decent to good Hollywood stories, and some inspired faux sour grapes.

MSNBC McVeigh Tapes (none / 0) (#8)
by john horse on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 06:50:00 AM EST

Jeralyn,
Rachel Maddow is going to broadcast some tapes that Timothy McVeigh made while he was in prison. In lesser hands I think this could be sensationalistic exploitation but I trust Rachel Maddow not to go there.

I was interested in your thoughts on this.

: I hope so, but the ads (none / 0) (#25)
by Cream City on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 12:42:41 PM EST

with Maddow intoning doom are quite sensationalist.
I also was wondering what Jeralyn will think of this show.

GOP Attempt to Deny Teacher Tenure Vetoed (none / 0) (#9)
by john horse on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 07:31:15 AM EST

There is a happy ending (for now) to the attempts by the GOP legislature in Florida to deny tenure for K-12 teachers. Charlie Crist has vetoed the bill.

Crist said that he received an unprecedented amount of reaction from parents, students, and teachers while he was considering whether to sign or veto the bill. Most Floridians were in favor of the veto. On the other side were the Chamber of Commerce (which ran endless ads lying about how this bill would actually increase teacher pay) and his own Republican party base. Crist's veto may have cost him whatever chance he had to get the GOP Senate nomination but, good for him, he decided to do the right thing.

One of the takeaways from this is that the GOP in Florida is becoming radically conservative. What I mean by this is that the GOP used to be the party that was for either preserving the status quo or moderate change. They are now the party of special interests like developers and the Chamber of Commerce and the party of extremists. They see fiscal crisis as an opportunity to further push their radical agenda. It is a party that has pushed away moderate conservatives like Charlie Crist.

Charlie is thinking of pulling a (none / 0) (#10)
by jimakaPPJ on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 07:45:44 AM EST

third party run for the Senate as he knows he can't win the Repub nomination and he thinks this will garner him independent support.

We'll see. I think he just won the seat for the Repubs.

Those rascally radicals who want their child's education system fixed will now come out in numbers.


The Dems (none / 0) (#12)
by CoralGables on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 08:47:07 AM EST

haven't been in this race yet at all. If anything an independent run by Crist gives the Dems a shot by default. More likely though, a third party run just makes it a lot of fun to watch the fireworks between the top two while the Dem candidate finishes 3rd rather than 2nd.


: It is funny to watch (none / 0) (#13)
by ruffian on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 10:07:42 AM EST

The Rubio and Crist camps compete for which side has misused party funds the most. Great bunch of guys, all.

Geithner comments re tea parties (none / 0) (#14)
by jbindc on Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 10:12:55 AM EST

"Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised the "positive side" of the tea party movement Sunday, suggesting the movement's concern with deficits could align the group with the administration in the future.

Asked by NBC "Meet the Press" host David Gregory about the movement, Geithner said its concerns were informed by the expansion of spending under President Bush, and that the awareness now that there's no way to pass an "enormous expansion of government without paying for it" is "an important change.""

From Politico - transcript from MTP this morning.